242
You appreciate that the obvious comment is that this might have led to some genuine d amongst the people with whom he was dealing?
!
Do you think this is something which is a question of emphasis or a question of substance? I think emphasis.
Mr. Beveridge:
Mr. McDaid:
Mr. Beveridge:
Mr. McDaid:
Mr. Beveridge:
Yes.
Mr. McDaid:
sion
Emphasis? So in other words you think everybody would have got the same story but it could have been expressed in a different manner and in different phrases with a different emphasis?
Yes."
Fulton's Own Interpretation of the SIU Instruction
16.
17.
11
According to Quinn, what Brooks asked Fulton to do was something to this effect11:—
“You go and get one of your friends to chat up MacLennan or to get off with MacLennan and to report back to us."
What was Fulton's interpretation of Brooks' instructions? In Fulton's handwritten note of events (Exhibit No. B111), he recorded in paragraph 14 that:—
18.
"... They told me that they were after a police officer and they named the officer whom they wish to get-John MacLennan and asked me if I could set him up with one of my friends and in that way get proof that he was a definite homosexual and to report back to them . . ."
It is clear from Fulton's evidence that the phrase "set him up" in his note merely means "provide him with”, and Fulton did not use the term "set-up" in the sense of the now well-known allegation of a set-up.'
12
19. As to what precisely Fulton understood or believed to be Brooks' instructions, it is important that I should quote Fulton's evidence:13
20.
“Mr. Beveridge:
Mr. Fulton:
Mr. Beveridge:
Mr. Fulton:
Mr. Beveridge:
Mr. Fulton:
I'm going to suggest to you that there's a distinction between saying: "Well now, if you have a homosexual friend and he meets him and a homosexual relationship just happens to develop conveniently and nicely and you learn about it and then report back." I'm going to suggest to you that probably wouldn't be criminal. But I suggest there's a different situation, namely when you get a homosexual friend of yours to meet Mr. MacLennan for the purpose of inspiring Mr. MacLennan to deliberately have an affair, namely that the homosexual is not just to meet him in a neutral sense but was to go with the intent of seducing him sexually. I'm going to suggest to you that that would be a crime, understand?
Yes.
Now, I don't want you to answer on the law because it's not really relevant and later on that can be argued out, but I just wanted everybody to understand clearly the distinction on the facts. I explain that to you because I want to have your answer on it. Now, which was the suggestion put to you? Was this merely that you would introduce a homosexual friend and see what happened, or were you to find some friend who was actively to try to incite him to a sexual act with him?
Well, I think it would come within the second category, the latter category, because the way it was put to me was that I was to get one of my homosexual friends to go with John MacLennan, as it were, to test and if there was a homosexual act took place at the instigation of this friend of mine and, as it were, John MacLennan took the bait, then that person was either to report back to me or, if I'd told the SIU who it was, was also to accompany me to see the SIU and to tell them, so I felt that it comes within the latter category.
Now, maybe I'm asking you beyond the power of recollection but I want to ask a further question about that. If you can't remember or can't say the answer then of course you'll say so. Was this testing to be done merely by introducing an attractive homosexual to him to see what happened, or was this homosexual to have some instructions positively to try to provoke an incident?
Well, the way it was put to me was that he was to be introduced for the purpose trying to assess, from the reactions of John MacLennan towards him and what subsequently happened, whether John MacLennan was a homosexual."
It is clear from Fulton's own evidence that what he was asked to do was to introduce a homosexual friend of his to MacLennan to see what happened. Fulton was not told to give positive instructions to his homosexual friend to inspire MacLennan to committing a homosexual act. This supports Quinn's evidence. However, it is also fair to say that, although Brooks and Quinn did not ask Fulton to "set-up" MacLennan, neither did they instruct Fulton to establish whether or not MacLennan was a homosexual by means other than committing a homosexual act. It is not surprising that Fulton, with his timorous nature and vulnerable position as a homosexual, formed the impression that he was being put under pressure to arrange a homosexual contact between himself or a friend of his with MacLennan in order to obtain evidence against MacLennan i.e. to "set-up" MacLennan.
11
See Transcript page 7554.
12
NM
See Transcript page 4445.
13 See Transcript pages 4455-4457.